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Here we are, still nine weeks away from the start of the NHL season, and the Leafs have already muscled their way into dominance of the sports pages. The Toronto Sun, which leaves no Leaf twitch undocumented, no informal skating session in August unscrutinized, devoted three full pages to matters blue and white earlier this week before any mention was made for the Blue Jays or Argos. This is jumping the shark backwards.

We are in pathological thrall to the Leafs, a club which returned to the post-season in May after an eight-year absence and suffered an epic Game 7 collapse in the first round against Boston. But let bygones be bygones. And what would an exhibition camp be without a contract holdout? Come on down, Nazem Kadri. Few others in Leaf-land can so easily fill a notebook with quotes.

Clearly, the appetite for Toronto’s hockey beloveds is insatiable. Price no object. So, while many will in fact object to the team’s
newly bruited ticket costing formula
, the disgruntlement will not affect sales one iota.

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While details haven’t been finalized — regular-season tickets don’t go on sale to the public until mid-September — the Leafs plan to hike prices on a tiered basis for 2013-14. Ducats will be jacked up for visits by “premium’’ teams, perhaps, according to reports, by up to a $35 swing in face value, across five levels of offering from pre-season to super-premium. Not that the Leafs have ever had problems drawing sellouts for low-wattage opposition — and some clubs apply the formula in reverse, to encourage attendance when the likes of Columbus come to town.

Toronto already soaks the public with the most expensive tickets in the league and only recently has the on-ice product been remotely enticing, at least since the flare-out of the Ron Wilson debacle. According to an evaluation by U.S.-based Team Market Reporting this past February, the average Leaf ticket costs $124.69 last season, compared to the average Coyotes ticket at $40.32.

At the moment, a platinum ticket goes for $270. More, however, for ultra-elite platinum, say, on the rail. It is a pecking order within a pecking order but most of us don’t get to pick a peck.

A club source explains that the steepened cost is, technically, tiered and not “dynamic,” which is a sports economics mumbo-jumbo term for the increasingly prevalent practice of price distinction or, more accurately, price
discrimination
— likened by one in-the-know person interviewed Wednesday as “buying stock in a moving target.” The value is fluid and stretches, according to various changing factors. An NFL ticket purchased in November may cost more in December, at the club’s discretion. “For a fan, not every day is created equal,’’ I was told.

The Leafs will set their value-added mark-up for hot games at the start of the season and not revisit it later.

This scheme is aimed at single-ticket purchases. It will have no impact on season ticket holders. At an arena with a seating capacity for hockey of 18,819, 90 per cent of seats are controlled by that constituency of the privileged, whether individuals or (boo-hiss) tax write-off corporations. Everybody else — ordinary mooks — are in a dogfight over what’s left, which usually means dropping large wads via curbside scalpers and re-sale online sites.

The greediness of the franchise knows no bounds. There was nary a blush in the spring when the Leafs jacked ticket prices by up to 75 per cent. Did you see an empty seat in the house — by the start of the second period, I mean. We know the platinum 1 per centers don’t settle in until midway through the first.

Supply-demand economics are seriously askew at 40 Bay. The franchise operates in an environment that defies real world verisimilitude. For regular folks, that means their cherished Leafs will never be any closer that the sports pages or the TV broadcast.

As a kid, I used to sneak into Maple Leaf Gardens and hide in secret places for hours before venturing out in search of an empty seat or, at worst, standing room only spots. I hope — yet doubt — that urchins are still finding a way to breach the ramparts at the ACC.

That might be against the law but so is extortion — except when it masquerades as best business practice.

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